Nano technology involves extremely small structures. One type of nano structures consist of nano tubes which are single wall or multi-wall forms of carbon which are made by forming carbon atoms into a narrow, long tube. This molecular structure presents a wide range of useful properties which are useful in a number of applications because of their mechanical strength, hydrogen storage properties, electric field discharge properties. Nano tubes may be conductive or semi-conductive and manufactured or fabricated by a number of techniques, including evaporation of solid carbon by electric arc discharge. The prior art also discloses fabrication of these tubes by laser ablation, catalytic chemical vaporization or vapor deposition of carbon and catalytic decomposition of fullerenes. Fullerenes are close cage molecules composed entirely of hybridized carbons arranged in hexagons and pentagons.
Reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,743,500; 676,870; 6,063,243 and 6,183,714 and the citations therein for discussions on various methods of fabricating nano tubes.
As mentioned above, one of the characteristics of nano tubes is their conductivity or semi-conductivity. To date, only limited application of nano tube products utilizing the conductivity have been developed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,706,402 discloses nano tube films or articles in which an aggregation of nano tube segments are in contact with one another and define a plurality of conductive pathways along the article. The article so formed may disposed on substrates and may form an electrical network of nano tubes within the article itself.
In accordance with the present invention, the conductive characteristic of nano tubes is utilized to fabricate various polymer matrices components and articles.